For instance… Josh, who works at a nationally known pet-retailer in North Haven, Conn., said, “The most common mistake I’ve encountered? People who put house plants in their tanks without realizing they’re toxic to fish.”

Josh said such customers generally come in complaining their fish are “acting sluggish,” or worse, and after some diagnostic questioning admit, “Why yes, I have recently added something new to the tank. I thought a cutting from my English Ivy might look nice.” Josh said it might “look nice” but English Ivy is toxic to pet fish. Here’s a basic list of other toxic plants:

As for caring for basic beginner plants, like Anubias Barteri and Amazon Swords, or even duck-weed and java moss balls…

Josh said most of the nutrients these hardy tank additions need are “acquired straight from the tank’s substrate, its water, fish wastes and your basic florescent or L.E.D. aquarium light. They don’t really need a lot to keep them going.”

He added that while light is obviously essential for photosynthesis, “It’s also important you turn the lights off at night. Just like fish need their little quiet-time, plants need a rest, too.”

technabob.com

Though his shop sells a wide variety of colorful and realistic looking artificial plants… Josh says he for one prefers natural plants. “They just look nicer, compared to plastic. I think an aquarium setting should look as natural as possible. That’s part of the aesthetic of setting up a beautiful tank.”

Confession: I mostly look at the plants I pop into our aquarium the same way other people give their cat a tin of actual tuna…

This cat just heard she’s getting a tin of actual tuna

In other words, I provide them because my goldfish really seem to enjoy grazing on them…

dragoart.com

But it’s not all about snacking… Live plants don’t just supplement the omnivorous goldfish meal-plan, they contribute to George and Flash’s general well-being and the health of their environment: providing shelter for the smaller fish that share their tank, helping to cycle oxygen, serving as natural nitrate and nitrite filters, plus..!!

“Plants that absorb nutrients from the water also make it difficult for algae to grow and therefore, indirectly help to clean the tank.”

Beginners often find it challenging to strike the right light spectrum balance and meet their flora’s nutrient requirements.

So, until next we meet (and enjoy exploring a forest of aqua-flora) … here’s a sweet little plant my goldfish consider a slice of heaven:

Felicity

“To remember a successful salad is generally to remember a successful dinner; at all events, the perfect dinner necessarily includes the perfect salad.”George Ellwanger (1848-1906)
‘Pleasures of the Table’ (1902)

“Chad (of Vossen Aquatics) brought the above distressed Scribbled Angelfish to Lexington Pet Clinic (Minnesota). There Veterinarian Dr. Kizer performed surgery after the X-ray identified a rock lodged in the angelfish’s intestine. The procedure took approximately an hour in which the fish was out of water and anesthetized.” Read the full story here:

Though it can take an extensive Internet search to locate a local fish vet, Dr. A. David Scarfe of the AMVA’s Scientific Division says, “Aquatic Veterinary medicine is probably the largest growing field of veterinary medicine in the past ten years.”

Then again… sometimes those salt-of-the-earth sollutions are best when there’s no help at hand:

That said, I find following the directions on the side of my cartoon of aquarium salt the surest remedy and quickest route to help:

And in case you were afraid to look,

the story about the little angel has a happy ending…

“The Scribbled Angelfish, all stitched up.”

Felcity –

“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.”
― Anatole France

Heather is the well-meaning but somewhat lackadaisical (sorry, Heather, but you know it’s true) owner of a 26-gallon freshwater bow-front aquarium so spotted with green algae she won’t let me photograph it for inclusion in this post.

Heather: “Well, you did have that post way back when…”

Felicity: “‘Too Much of A Good Thing Can be Wonderful.’ Posted on Valentine’s Day.”

Heather: “Uh huh, when you asked… ‘What’s the most unaesthetic beneficial thing in your tank?'”

Felicity: “I see where you’re going with this but there’s a difference between ‘unaesthetic’ and, well, this…”

The moon jelly, with a Latin name as lovely as its ethereal form… Aurelia aurita, prefers ocean temperatures ranging between 48 to 66 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s hard to believe something so delicate looking makes its living as a carnivore, but moon jellies do prey on the larvae of shrimp, crabs and other forms of plankton.

theartfulamoeba.comby Jennifer Frazer – “These three cuties are all crab larvae — from left to right, the zoea larva of the spider crab Maja squinado, the angular crab Goneplax rhomboides.”

Though their movements are mostly governed by the tides, they can launch themselves into a nutritious plankton cloud by pulsing their bell.

Intrigued? I am, by the creature itself, not by the thought of ‘keeping’ them in an aquarium.

For me, part of the wonder of this translucent lifeform is the backdrop of its vast and tumultuous natural home … and its staggering breadth of history. Did you know jelly fish have plied the earth’s oceans for 500 to 700 million years?

“They have no heart, no brain and function with a loose network of nerves located in their thin outer skin. An elementary nervous system, or nerve net, allows jellyfish to smell, detect light, and respond to other stimuli.”

Yet of course, as evidenced by the videos gracing this post, there are many people who do enjoy the challenge of creating a jellyfish habitat.

“You need a special, circular aquarium called a Kreisel tank,” said the fish-specialist manning the salt-water aisle of my local big-box aquarium outfitter. “It creates the circular current jellyfish need to float through the aquarium, plus it protects them from getting sucked into the tank’s filtering system. Also, the tank itself is round or cylindrical. Jellies would get wedged in the corners of a square tank and die.”

gizmodiva.com

He added, “They might die anyway. They’re definitely not for beginners. I only know of one customer who has ever tried keeping them and he’s on his third tank in three years. I’d say anyone who thinks they’re up to the challenge should do their research first.” A good place to start…

by Chad L. Widmer

by Chad L. Widmer. You can read more about this specie’s aquarium needs at:

Where you can learn, among other many interesting things: • Marine scientists no longer referred to these animals as jellyfish and instead use the term jelly. • In 1991, over 2000 moon jellies were sent into space on the space shuttle Columbia to study the effects of weightlessness on the development of jellies. • A group of jellies is called a smack, but also a swarm or a bloom.

ocean.nationalgeographic.com

Felicity

“When you move like a jellyfish rhythm don’t mean nothing. You go with the flow, you don’t stop. Move like a jellyfish, rhythm means nothing. You go with the flow you don’t stop.” ― Jack Johnson